To every member of the MCCGJA who has been engaged in the recruiting (outreach), the selection and the training which was completed Friday July 13th:

I want to offer my congratulations and sincere appreciation for your diligent efforts these last six months. In furthering the goals of the Marin Grand Jury and the objectives of our Marin Chapter, here’s what you accomplished:

Recruiting (Outreach)

  1. The placing of eight (8) quarter page ads which, thanks to our outside (and unpaid) consultant, created an improved image of the Marin Civil Grand Jury. The ads were creative, clever and noteworthy and were the most effective promotion, along with the informational meetings they publicized, of our efforts. The ads advertised the schedule of “open houses.”
  2. Eleven promotional “open houses” were held, beginning in February, which included a power point presentation designed to explain what the GJ is (and is not) and what it does.
  3. In addition, the presentation was given to several groups/clubs of 30 and more, e.g., the Chevron Retirees Assn. For his steadfast help at all of these presentations, special heartfelt posthumous thanks goes to our dedicated webmaster and member of twenty-one years, Gene Dyer.
  4. To promote the meetings, a network of Association members was created to send messages on Nextdoor to each community. On four separate occasions, over 139,000 messages were posted. There was considerable overlap due to the structure of Nextdoor, but this was explained in a disclaimer. No criticisms were received, and the repetition was a plus.
  5. Jay Hamilton-Roth worked with Judge Simmons to produce a professional outreach video which has been shown in the Jury room and elsewhere and which, most notably, is on the Grand Jury website and will be shown in our next recruiting efforts.
  6. These combined efforts resulted in some 55 applications, most of whom were clearly folks who could bring skills and perspective to the job.

Selection

1. 45 applicants chose to pursue their request to serve on the Grand Jury by agreeing to the extensive interview process.

2.

Thanks to the highly organized efforts of Selection Advisory Committee (SAC) Chairman Tom Borden, 22 members of the Association volunteered to conduct the interviews or to observe the group sessions. Volunteers were prepped in advance and were given a question format to follow, so that each interviewee was addressed in an identical manner.

Rich Treadgold reprised his excellent work of leading and facilitating the group dynamics session wherein groups of six applicants were asked to agree on a subject of investigation. Observers were given worksheets to provide a format for their written comments.

Judges Kelly Simmons (Presiding Judge of the Marin Superior Court) and Paul Haakenson (Presiding Judge–elect) were welcome participants in this process.

These combined efforts, using our comprehensive screening protocol, led to the selection of 30 approved applicants.

Training

1. A full week of training for both the chosen new Grand Jurors and the Alternates was organized and implemented by Training Chairman Rich Treadgold this past week.

2. Instigated by Rich in last year’s training, the training in large measure consisted of practice in developing “Requests for Investigations” and reports plus role playing in such areas as the interviewing of reluctant or defensive interviewees. With Rich as the consummate facilitator for group feedback sessions, the entire group discussed what they did correctly and what they could improve upon: their own consensus was that they would remember the lessons learned.

3. In summary, the 30 Jurors and Alternates were very enthused about their training and felt positive about the work before them.

With our well-organized (thanks to Social Chair Linda Glasscock) and well- attended reception on Friday to honor the outgoing 2016-17 Grand Jury and to welcome the incoming 2017-18 Grand Jury, we have come to the close of a decidedly productive year for our Marin Chapter. So, to each of you who so willingly made a valuable contribution to this year’s accomplishments, I offer my congratulations and a hearty “Well Done!”